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Myanmar's muted press strives for a louder voice
Agence France Presse - December 13, 2011
Until just months ago, prominent coverage of the country's Nobel prize-winning opposition leader was almost unheard of and people who spoke to reporters in the country formerly known as Burma were taking a real risk.
But a reformist agenda by a new army-backed government has since heralded very visible changes in the press – and raised hopes that newspapers could be released from the shackles of one of the world's strictest censorship regimes.
"We are more free than before. We have more press freedom," newspaper seller Aye Thida said, while serving a stream of customers on the streets of Yangon this month.
Surrounded by that day's papers showing news of Suu Kyi's meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the front page, she was happy to speak to AFP in broad daylight without fear of reprisals from the authorities.
Myanmar was a military dictatorship for nearly half a century until November 2010 elections brought a new nominally civilian regime to power.
The authorities have long sought to stifle the press, creating an information void, where momentous events were simply ignored or whispered about in private. The country's media was mute on the 2002 death of strongman Ne Win, whose 26 years in power ushered in a period of economic decline and isolation.
Jail terms have even been handed to people caught talking to journalists during fraught periods such as the 2008 Cyclone Nargis disaster.
Myanmar news editors, long used to deciding between not covering important stories or facing the consequences for trying, still have to submit a draft of their publication to the information ministry before going to print.
But recently eased restrictions on coverage have given them a small taste of freedom, even if some subjects are still off-limits.
Even the regime's English-language mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, has had a makeover, and instead of fiery attacks on foreign media now carries celebrity news on US stars such as Madonna – although it steers clear of anything remotely sensitive at home.
Than Htut Aung, chairman and chief executive of Eleven Media Group, which has a number of news and sport titles in Myanmar, said the press had "changed quite a lot in six months", but many topics remain out of bounds.
"We have not won the right to express different political views yet. We cannot report the voices of families of political prisoners in detail, or discuss the release of political prisoners," he told AFP.
Eleven Media's first-hand experience of media repression includes seeing one of its editors sentenced to death in 2003 for "high treason" over two football stories, later commuted to three years in prison.
Last November, sales of the First Eleven Sports Journal were halted for two weeks because it responded to Suu Kyi's release from house arrest after the election with a front-page football headline in which some letters were printed in a lighter shade to spell out: "SU FREE UNITE & ADVANCE TO GRAB THE HOPE".
A year later, Tint Swe, head of the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department told Radio Free Asia that censorship should be "abolished" as part of reforms, although he added that media freedom would come with responsibilities.
Crime and business titles this month joined sports journals, entertainment magazines and fairytales in not needing prior approval from censors. There are indications that newspapers may follow, with officials indicating a move to "self-censorship" for all, but details of the plans remain unclear.
Media insiders say that they see a tussle between government hardliners, including the Information Minister Kyaw Hsan, and progressives keen to present a new Myanmar to the world.
In the same week in September that banned websites including the BBC and exile media group the Democratic Voice of Burma became freely accessible in the country a DVB reporter's prison sentence was extended by 10 years.
Many laws used to imprison or threaten reporters remain in force, said Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which estimates at least 12 journalists are behind bars in Myanmar.
"There's no critical coverage of government ministers, senior military, government policies and none of the past regime's extraordinary abuses and corruption," he added.
But those working in Myanmar's media say they have been astonished at the speed of change in the country that was ranked 174th worst out of 178 nations by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders in its 2010 press freedom index.
"In one of our editions a few weeks ago we had four pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi, including on the front page. I can remember a time when we were not allowed to even mention her name," said Australian journalist Geoffrey Goddard, who joined The Myanmar Times 10 years ago.
"It's a wonderful time to be in Myanmar," he told AFP. "For the sake of the Myanmar people I dearly hope it lasts."
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